Germany’s conservative opposition says overhead power lines save €35 bln in grid expansion

Germany’s conservative opposition party alliance of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and the Bavarian Christian Social Union (CSU) are looking to save some 35 billion euros in the expansion of Germany’s electricity grid by prioritising the installation of overhead lines over the long preferred underground cables, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reported. This amount would be equal to almost 12 percent of the approximately 300 billion euros in total expansion costs. The idea to put most of the transmission lines underground to reduce the visual impact on the landscape initially was championed by the government of former CDU chancellor Angela Merkel. 

The conservative parties argue that the expansion of renewable energy sources is a lost cause if sufficient high-performance electricity networks are not installed at the same time. The CDU and CSU parliamentary groups are aiming to approve a 12-point plan to reduce grid expansion costs this week and submit it to parliament. "It makes no sense to spend many billions of euros building up offshore wind energy capacity of several gigawatts if it then has to be shut down for large parts of the year because the transmission of the energy generated in this way has not been ensured at the same time," the document states. The decision is a turnaround for the CDU/ CSU: In 2015, Merkel’s grand coalition government together with current chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democratic Party (SPD) agreed to prioritise underground cables at the behest of then-CSU chairman and Bavarian prime minister Horst Seehofer in order to spare the federal states from the unsightly “monster overhead lines.” Now, faced with tightening budgets, the conservative alliance’s new position calls for new grid lines to be “above ground where possible, underground where necessary." The routes should "generally be planned and implemented as overhead lines" in order to reduce construction and operating costs and shorten planning and construction times. "In congested regions, underground cabling will remain the norm."

The conservatives’ position reflects a growing consensus among government and industry sectors, including the Federal Network Agency (BNetzA) and energy sector association BDEW, in pushing for above-ground grid expansion.